BOE may shift sex ed focus

Posted: Wednesday, January 09, 2008

The Clarke County school board may scrap its long-standing policy of abstinence-only sex education that some say isn't working since two-thirds of local teens are having sex and the community continues to report high teen pregnancy rates.

A committee made up of parents, health officials and district employees has proposed the change that the Clarke County Board of Education is scheduled to consider Thursday.

"We are not advocating that kids be sexually active," said Alice Harris, the committee's co-chair and a retired family doctor. "We want kids to be abstinent. It's what we hope for all of our kids and these programs will emphasize abstinence. But knowing some kids will choose not to be abstinent, we want them to know how to protect themselves from disease and pregnancy."

For years, sex education in Clarke County schools consisted almost exclusively of discussions about the importance of abstinence. The district's current policy - first approved in 1992 - requires teaching abstinence as the only sure method of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease and an effective way of preventing HIV/AIDS. The current policy also bars teachers from using any instructional materials that emphasize any sexual practice other than abstinence until marriage.

Despite years of abstinence-only education, Athens' teen pregnancy rate remains higher than the state average and the majority of high school students are sexually active, said committee member Claude Burnett, director of the Northeast Health District.

"Given the fact that two-thirds of students are sexually active before they leave high school, the current policy is not serving those students," Burnett said. "We certainly support abstinence, but we're trying to be realistic and give them the best opportunity to avoid unfortunate consequences for the choices they make."

Years of abstinence-only policies in the school system have not had the desired effect, according to statistics cited by the committee.

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Sixty-six percent of teens report they're sexually active by 18 and almost a quarter of students reported they were having sex by 14, according to a 2005 survey. The county's teen pregnancy rate of 6.5 percent is higher than the state average and higher than some developing countries like Mexico, the survey said.

According to the same survey, almost 60 percent of teens "perceive" that the birth control pill is not available to them.

Another study conducted by the Northeast Health District in 2006 showed 71 percent of pregnant clients at Teen Matters said they had not used birth control.

Those numbers show it's not only unrealistic to expect every kid to abstain from sex, Harris said, it's also "irresponsible" not to educate them about other ways to protect themselves.

While abstinence is the only certain way to prevent STD transmission, condoms can greatly reduce the risks for people who are sexually active, according to the centers for disease control, however sexually active students aren't being told that.

"Some teens don't know how to protect themselves from an STD or pregnancy if they choose not to be abstinent," Harris said. "We don't help them deal with something that could literally kill them if they get HIV."

In addition to birth control, the new sex education policy would allow teachers to discuss topics related to sex, like parenting or preventing sexual violence, as well as broader issues like relationships and self-esteem.

While broadening the scope of sex education, committee members tried to better define acceptable instruction and encourage partnerships with agencies like the health department and Teen Matters, said committee co-chair Mike Blake, an associate superintendent for the school district.

"It's part of the whole community effort," Blake said. "Everybody that's teaching health and relationships (in the community), they may have their own approach - and if it's an abstinence-only approach that's fine - but we need to make each entity comfortable with what they're teaching and create a community-wide approach."

If the school board approves the change Thursday, the committee will begin to create new curriculum and introduce new textbooks and materials for sex ed, Blake said.

Students would begin the new curriculum in fall 2009, Blake said. And as with the current sex ed policy, he said, every parent would have the opportunity to opt their child out of the class.

While the school district's policy requires a committee regularly to review its sex education policy, that requirement had not been met for several years, school board President Charles Worthy said Monday.

After years of inaction, the school district was encouraged to assign a new committee and reassess sex education last summer. That recommendation came from members of OneAthens teen pregnancy task force that met last year with the goal of reducing teen pregnancy by 25 percent in Clarke County.

Burnett, Harris and two other members of that OneAthens task force were eventually named to the school district's committee of 21 people. The committee also included representatives from Teen Matters, school faculty and health professionals. More than half of the committee members also were parents, like Shay Little, who has two daughters at Cedar Shoals High School.

"I think it's a very important proposal, and I'm very much in support of it... This broadens (the old policy) and the issues surrounding the topic of sex education," she said.

The school board is scheduled to vote on the policy at its regular meeting Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the district offices on Mitchell Bridge Road.